Various interfaces for transmitting and receiving digital data between electronic devices are known in the art. Existing interfaces, however, do not meet the needs of many modern systems. It is often desirable to enable high bandwidth communications for a variety of connected devices, while maintaining reliability and good signal quality, and meeting the need for low cost, low power devices. For example, an adaptive noise cancellation (ANC) headset may require complex and expensive equipment, and high bandwidth communications between the ANC headset and a host device may be desirable for certain applications, such as processing a noise cancellation signal on a host device.
In some approaches, high bandwidth communications is achieved through a digital communications link that terminates at the receiver. These approaches may provide satisfactory signal integrity for certain configurations, but if there is simultaneously a requirement for low power consumption, the static power consumption in the receiver termination may be undesirable. Further, many of these approaches are not optimized for low latency data transfer, because data communications could take a full sample period to be transferred over the digital communications link. Some systems often have additional requirements, such as supporting connections to multiple devices and supporting physical links meeting certain length requirements (e.g., 1-2 meters).
In view of the foregoing, there is a continued need in the art for improved digital data communications systems and methods.